Current Events > Mallard plays Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne for the first time *ongoing spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Last year I made a thread to talk about my first playthrough of the Mass Effect games, and people seemed to like it. The first thread hit 500 posts, and the second thread hit somewhere around 200 - 300. I had a lot of fun making it, and I thought I'd try it again for Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne.

The spoiler policy is this: you can say unmarked spoilers up to the point where I'm playing - I tend to make multiple posts per play session, so it should be clear where I'm up to. If there's something coming up just down the road from where I left my last post, feel free to talk about it with spoiler tags. I want this to be a fun thread for SMT fans to chat and reminisce, but it's also a thread for a newbie to experience the game for the first time - so please be courteous with your spoilers.

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My only history with the series is with Persona 3. I can already feel a few design similarities, but I'm well aware that the Persona and mainline SMT games have wildly different settings and design choices between them - so this is essentially my first dip into the "hard" SMT games. I'm playing the PS2 port on PS3, and it kind of sucks, but I do enjoy the character designs so far and the music seems alright.

I really like the aesthetic of early 2000's Atlus characters. The weird, greyed out eyes and alien-esque heads really give their games a cool flair. The characters remind me of Maken Shao: Demon Sword, an Atlus title I had when I was a kid.

I went ahead and named my character Mr. Mallard. The characters so far have been calling me Mr., so maybe that was a bad idea? I also set my nickname as Mallard. I'm currently in the basement of the hospital at the start of the game, looking for Ms... Takeo? You know, the arbiter of the world ending or w/e in the prologue. I don't know what's going on.
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Jesus Christ. The earth just got fucking purged of all human life.

I mean outside of yourself and a handful of crazy characters, and the inevitable few new party members and remnants of humanity. But still, this game just showed a global genocide on screen.

Okay, this creepy little shit and his grandma has taken an interest in me. Oh goody. This couldn't possibly go wrong, especially after the world fucking ends.

Did th-- oh, so it's not a demon, but like a demonspawn-thing that turns ME into a demon?

Okay, now there's a dude that's covered in blue Tron lines. This is rad as fuck. Super cool aesthetic.

Wait, I'm the dude with the blue Tron lines. Fuck.

And that's where I'm gonna save.

It seems like a pretty cool game so far. Not something I'm clamoring to play - it's a bit dated as far as visuals and the camera control goes. I'd love to play a version of this with less aliasing. I imagine the PS2 original is the ideal way to play, because the PS3 port of the PS2 game is pretty ass.
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sadly the little kid is insanely obvious to anyone who's played any of the mainline games before

I'm gonna assume that the dude from the Velvet Room in Persona is the equivalent to this guy in the Persona-verse. That, or this guy is the anti-christ.

I know that the SMT games have a choice between order, chaos and neutral. I'm assuming this kid is on the chaos side of things.
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Hell yeah! I started this game just a few days ago too!

Edit: I actually had a save file with 30 some hours but that was years ago so I'm starting fresh

I booted the game up again. Just started my first battle.

This battle music is going off.
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Don´t like the Metal? ^^

If you have only played Persona before, be warned that you will have to grind in this one, other then that it was a great game.
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Vamp_Aubrey posted...

lmaoo
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So yeah, I'm assuming this old guy is the Velvet Room dude of this game to some degree. Both of them are weird old bastards with female henchmen, and both of them are vital to your emergence as the potagonist to some degree. I'm also assuming he's tied to the Chaos side of things? Honestly, I can't verify that latter part yet.

I went through that sewer-like area for a bit, triggered a cutscene then bumbled around for a while. I eventually found Pixie, who sounds like a toned down Harley Quinn voiced by Tara Strong in my head, and I fought those weird monster things. I'm in the Annex right now.

I just met a weird mop demon who taught me stuff about the battle system. Then I entered a room with a dog/wolf demon. I like this guy, he was like "NICE TO MEET YOU FELLOW DEMON. MAN, DON'T WE DEMONS HAVE IT ROUGH? PLEASE TAKE THIS SOUVENIR AS A TOKEN OF OUR MEETING." I hope I can get a party member like him later in the game.

I just found the Talk option. I like this - I thought it was rad when Phantasy Star had it, and I wondered why it was so rare in other games. It also comes with a monster-catching technique, which is pretty cool too. I befriended a Kodama, it sucked a bunch of my life away but it's aight.
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Very enjoyable game and one of my favorites even if just for the atmosphere it provides. I'm sure you've heard it before but don't expect terribly satisfying story segments, the narrative is very much philosophically focused rather than on characters or the plot. Still I look forward to this topic and maybe it'll inspire me to do another play through as it's been almost a decade since my last one.
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Man, I am gathering up demons like nobody's business. Just grabbed a Will O' the Wisp. It seems like it could be garbage tier, but I'm going to train it up and have it be a main party member for the lulz.

I just fought Forneus. There was a Komeda that told me to talk with Forneus instead of beating him, but he kept going "Hah! Negotiate?!" even when he entered the third stage of the fight. So I killed him.
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Easily one of my favorite games ever.
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And there's Dante. I'd be much more hyped if I liked what I played of the Devil May Cry games.

I bought the DmC HD collection, and I started playing DmC1. But I just can't get into it. Part of it was the graphics, maybe after playing Nocturne it won't seem so bad, but another part of me just wasn't into the gameplay. It might have been awesome for its time but it's hard to play when you've played a game like Metal Gear Rising - DmC feels like a proto-Platinum game, which would make sense considering the talent behind it, but because of that it's super hard to get into as someone who's been spoiled by newer games.

But yeah. Maybe playing Nocturne, both to check out Dante and to get used to less-than-optimal graphics for the PS3, will persuade me to get into those games.

I've just ventured out into Tokyo. My team is Mallard (of course) at level 7, Pixie and Shikigami at level 5, and Will o' Wisp at level 2.

I've been assigning my main character's level points exclusively into Strength. I'm gonna make a Glass Cannon, and probably totally fuck up my playthrough in the process. Max strength, baby!

Will o' Wisp is down! I repeat: Will o' Wisp is down! Abort mission, get back to Shinjuku Medical!
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I love this game. It's one of my favorite RPGs. The atmosphere is awesome. Fusing Demons / assembling teams is a lot of fun too IMO.

A few things useful tips:

- Don't dismiss your original Pixie, or use it for digging the tunnel later on in the game, as there'll be a surprise later on. You can do anything else with it, including using it as a Sacrifice. Any Demon descended from it will remain in the first spot, so it's easy to keep track of.
- Don't delete the MC's Focus skill. It's pretty good later on.
- Also, physical skills are the way to go. Magic damage is crap in this game, although it is still useful for hitting weaknesses.
- Regular attacks run off Strength. Attacks that use up HP go off Vitality.
- Open chests at Full Kagutsuchi for the best items.
- Get Fog Breath ASAP, for lowering enemies' accuracy/evasion by 2 levels. I think Forneus will learn it if you level him up a bit. War Cry is nice too, for lowering attack power. You'll want Dekunda and Dekaja too for nullifying stats buffs/debuffs.
- Buffs/debuffs work on a -4/+4 scale IIRC. Fog Breath = -2, Sukunda = -1, Sukukaja = +1, so 2 FBs will lower it all the way. However, if an enemy then uses 4 Sukukajas, then their accuracy/evasion will be back at 0 (unbuffed/debuffed). 4 more and it'll go to +4 (max).
- Completing the Amala Labyrinth will lock you into the True Demon ending, regardless of what dialogue options you choose throughout the game. That ending is recommend if you want to experience all the game has to offer.

Oh, and Daisoujou is pretty awesome. Meditate gives you an unlimited MP supply, Prayer fully heals your party, Preach is nice for hitting Mind weaknesses, Makatora can transfer MP. I like him with Dekunda and Dekaja too, maybe Fog Breath and a buff skill like Tarukaja.

Enjoy the Matador fight by the way. :P You'll want Fog Breath if you want to remain sane.

I appreciate the advice, but I feel like a lot of that stuff is spoilery? Like I wasn't gonna get rid of my Pixie - now I know there's a bonus for keeping her around for most of the game. It would have been rad as fuck to find that out on my own. And now I know that there's a thing called the Amala labyrinth, and that it locks me into one of multiple endings if I complete it.
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MrMallard posted...

I appreciate the advice, but I feel like a lot of that stuff is spoilery?

Maybe a bit I suppose, but it's not really anything major honestly. I tried to be a bit vague, but probably could have done a better job. Anyway, I'll say no more.

Anyway, I decided to power off for the night.

I got to Shibuya and met up with Chiaki. The character interaction in this game... really isn't very good so far. I can tell that this game - or at least this portion of the game - isn't going to rely too heavily on character interaction between your high school buddies and yourself. The demon stuff is really good, though.

I have to say, I'm really liking Nocturne the more I play it. I liked discovering the recruitment system, I like talking to all the spirit balls and demons. I got a spirit ball to give me 850 Macca for defeating Forneus, and a dude in Shibuya came off all tough, then when I confronted him he went "Welcome to the kick-ass deli! Taste our knuckle sandwich!". I love the NPC dialogue so far. I also love how you get into Shibuya and see the starfish demon, and it mentions Forneus being late for a date.

One tiny detail that I love is what happens when the camera gets too close to the protagonist. Usually you disappear so you can get a better look at the surroundings, or you turn into a shadow in some games - in this game, you turn into a shadow, but those glowy blue Tron lines stay on that shadow. Tiny detail, but I genuinely love it.

The camera is workable, but a bit too floaty and janky for me. It's a bit worse than Kingdom Hearts 1, but not by much - I've got my muscle memory down pat, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Right now, I'm in one of the malls in Shibuya. I found the Cathedral place, I'm super hyped to mix some monsters. But I think I'm done with Nocturne for the night.
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I think it's pretty cool how most of the NPCs are demons themselves, with appropriate personalities and dialogue. As serious as the game is at times, it can also be pretty goofy.

I'm sure we are all waiting for tc to get "there" lol
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While it is one of my favorite games ever, I do have one big gripe about Nocturne.

Skill inheritance. When you fuse demons, they can learn a number of skills and spells from the demons you use to fuse them. Those skills are, mostly, randomly selected from the lists of the 2 - 3 demons used for fusion. You can reshuffle the inherited skills be reselecting the demons for fusion, but it can be extremely tedious to get just the right skill set up on your late game demons.
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Esrac posted...

Skill inheritance.

Yeah, that is a major pain.

X
O
O
V
V
V

ad infinitum.

The later games definitely handle it better by letting you choose the inherited skills. The only thing I find with that is that it makes demons seem less unique since it's so easy to obtain the desired skills. It still beats hours of tedium though.

luigi13579 posted...

Esrac posted...

Skill inheritance.

Yeah, that is a major pain.

X
O
O
V
V
V

ad infinitum.

The later games definitely handle it better by letting you choose the inherited skills. The only thing I find with that is that it makes demons seem less unique since it's so easy to obtain the desired skills. It still beats hours of tedium though.

Oh man, I must've rerolled for a couple hours total to get just the right skill sets on my Metatron, Beelzebub, Vishnu, Shiva, etc.
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Vamp_Aubrey posted...

fucking saved
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luigi13579 posted...

- Also, physical skills are the way to go. Magic damage is crap in this game, although it is still useful for hitting weaknesses.

Came in to make sure someone said this. MC should be purely physical

Good to know. I've been flooding all my level-up EXP into strength.
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putting points in LUK is worth it you get more item drops, especially gems (not a huge spoiler), but not necessary. are you playing on normal or hard?
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I'm playing it on Normal. I don't play anything on Hard until I scope it out on a mid-to-easy difficulty first.
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magic is by far the easiest way to play the game for beginners and it's very reliable until the very end of the game where bosses stop having elemental weaknesses, especially with how early you can get tornado and destroy things with it
the final boss and lucifer are the only two bosses that show just how inferior magic is, but magic is so safe and easy that you can do a magic run and breeze through the first half of the game up until the point where physical attacks start to completely dominate

the game is a bit above average in difficulty on hard but quickly drops once you discover how broken buffs and debuffs are, so i assume you can just build whatever you want on the lower difficulty

MrMallard posted...

I'm playing it on Normal. I don't play anything on Hard until I scope it out on a mid-to-easy difficulty first.

cool. great game, probably my favorite RPG. i'm doing a hard mode run right now with a magic build (force/fire)
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dolomedes posted...

Esrac posted...

Oh man, I must've rerolled for a couple hours total to get just the right skill sets on my Metatron, Beelzebub, Vishnu, Shiva, etc.

i miss my ex's save file, in which she had fused almost every demon in the compendium to have bright might, dark might, and pierce. DM&BM were on over half the demons in the compendium, and i know pierce was pretty widespread but not nearly as much.

i just reconnected my ps2 and am currently playing through my first time without her compendium (also without her making fun of me for being under-leveled and then spending like 5 hours grinding after i go to sleep), lol. it's much harder now!


apparently adderal can make things like fusing demons for hours fun. on a similar note, she also collected 1,000,000 roses in we <3 katamari, which rewards you with... a different loading screen in the beginning of the game!

sounds like a keeper, why'd you let that go?!

MrMallard posted...

Anyway, I decided to power off for the night.

I got to Shibuya and met up with Chiaki. The character interaction in this game... really isn't very good so far. I can tell that this game - or at least this portion of the game - isn't going to rely too heavily on character interaction between your high school buddies and yourself. The demon stuff is really good, though.

I have to say, I'm really liking Nocturne the more I play it. I liked discovering the recruitment system, I like talking to all the spirit balls and demons. I got a spirit ball to give me 850 Macca for defeating Forneus, and a dude in Shibuya came off all tough, then when I confronted him he went "Welcome to the kick-ass deli! Taste our knuckle sandwich!". I love the NPC dialogue so far. I also love how you get into Shibuya and see the starfish demon, and it mentions Forneus being late for a date.

One tiny detail that I love is what happens when the camera gets too close to the protagonist. Usually you disappear so you can get a better look at the surroundings, or you turn into a shadow in some games - in this game, you turn into a shadow, but those glowy blue Tron lines stay on that shadow. Tiny detail, but I genuinely love it.

The camera is workable, but a bit too floaty and janky for me. It's a bit worse than Kingdom Hearts 1, but not by much - I've got my muscle memory down pat, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Right now, I'm in one of the malls in Shibuya. I found the Cathedral place, I'm super hyped to mix some monsters. But I think I'm done with Nocturne for the night.

dude i'm about at the same place as you are!!

I just jumped back into the game, and decided to fuse some monsters.

I tried to fuse my Datsue-Ba with my Shikigami, but I apparently wasn't strong enough. So I just fused my Hua Po and Shikigami and got a Jack Frost. I just re-captured a Shikigami, and now I'm hunting a Hua Po.

I'm gonna stay here and grind so I can buy Magatamas from the Junk Shop.
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I... don't know why I clicked in this topic expecting a duck to be playing a game.
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Since I know something's up with Pixie, is it okay for me to let her transform? Or does she have to remain in her base Pixie form for the whole game?

She transformed into a High Pixie a couple levels ago.
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MrMallard posted...

Since I know something's up with Pixie, is it okay for me to let her transform? Or does she have to remain in her base Pixie form for the whole game?

She transformed into a High Pixie a couple levels ago.

you can let her transform or even fuse her
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Illuminoius posted...

magic is by far the easiest way to play the game for beginners and it's very reliable until the very end of the game where bosses stop having elemental weaknesses, especially with how early you can get tornado and destroy things with it
the final boss and lucifer are the only two bosses that show just how inferior magic is, but magic is so safe and easy that you can do a magic run and breeze through the first half of the game up until the point where physical attacks start to completely dominate

the game is a bit above average in difficulty on hard but quickly drops once you discover how broken buffs and debuffs are, so i assume you can just build whatever you want on the lower difficulty

This is more or less correct.

Magic starts out mostly better than physical attacks, but magic plateaus midway through the game while physical attacks continue to blossom.

TC, I would echo the advice to build a mostly physical Demi-Fiend. However, I would recommend that you take up a couple support and healing skills. Remember that once you give up or pass on a skill, it's gone forever, so choose carefully.

For a physical Demi-Fiend, I would recommend something like this:

Single target physical attack (Divine Shot, Freikugel, etc)
Multi target target physical attack (Heat Wave, Gaea's Rage, etc)
Focus (very important for a physical attacker)
Healing spell (Dua, Media, etc)
Buff spell (Rakukaja, etc)
Debuff spell (Fog Breath, War Cry, etc)
Dekaja
Mana Drain

Of course, you can change that up depending on your party build. The point is even though your MC is physically inclined, he'll still have an MP pool. Might as well give him something to do with it. You could just as well swap some of those spells out for Life Bonus/Gain/Surge or Counter/Retaliate/Avenge if you don't really need them. Maybe even an elemental spell for fights where the enemy is immune to physical attacks.
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I decided to just jump into the Amala network and get to Ginza without the Magatamas from the Junk Shop.

I don't really like maze levels, and this was no exception. I hate teleporting back to the start, I hate flailing around in the dark, Regardless, I had an alright time and I got a bit of grinding in. I'm now level 12.

Ginza looks pretty messed up. I'll play a bit more and see what's up.

Just looked into the peephole. This is a cool cutscene.

Okay, so I'm in Hell. And the Velvet Room dude (who may or may not be aligned with Chaos) is here too. Time for some exposition and/or answers.

...or not.

Well, now that the Amala Link system is active, I'm gonna go back and buy some Magatamas.
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apolloooo posted...

Vamp_Aubrey posted...

lmaoo

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And I think I'm good for now.

So I guess you can't catch them all - I tried to recruit a demon, but I didn't have enough party space. I'll have to fuse a couple demons outside of my mains (High Pixie, Jack Frost and Will o' Wisp).

I haven't left the Ginza mall yet, I spent a few minutes just exploring and talking to demons. I think I'm going to save my jewels for the later stages of the game, Rag's Jewellery doesn't seem like a worthwhile investment yet.
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MrMallard posted...

I haven't left the Ginza mall yet, I spent a few minutes just exploring and talking to demons. I think I'm going to save my jewels for the later stages of the game, Rag's Jewellery doesn't seem like a worthwhile investment yet.

some of the items you can get there sell for a lot of macca. chakra pot sells for like 5k. it's good for getting cash to buy magatama.
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Esrac posted...

You could just as well swap some of those spells out for Life Bonus/Gain/Surge or Counter/Retaliate/Avenge if you don't really need them. Maybe even an elemental spell for fights where the enemy is immune to physical attacks.

I did exactly that in my file actually. Life Surge + Bolt Storm for hitting Rangda's weakness for grinding later on.

I'm gonna fuse some monsters together to make room for new monsters. Just got rid of my Shikigami and a Datsu-Be or w/e to get an Inugami, and I'm about to get a Choronzon from a Mou-Ryo and a Jack Frost.

I've gotten a Lilim or Nephim or w/e, and I've made my way to the Assembly of Nihilo.

Welp, I died for the first time. I got to the end of Rainbow Bridge and fought some enemies, but a bunch of soldier-looking demons destroyed me in one hit. I got Guillotine'd.

This time, I made my way down to the Great Underpass of Ginza. I'm gonna hang out here until I hit that anti-Nihilo guy.
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Ehh. I spent most of tonight just dawdling around. I think I'll just grind on and off over the next few days and get to where I need to go at my own pace.
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The great underpass of Ginza.

The game is about to get real for you.
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Matador is an asshole. Fuck this guy.
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MrMallard posted...

Matador is an asshole. Fuck this guy.

There it is. I was waiting for that.
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Anyway, your beat bet for fighting Matador is to get the demon Uzume. She can be acquired by fusing an Angel and a Pixie. She's useful for this fight because she Voids Force, which Matador uses sometimes, and innately possesses the Media spell, which heals the whole party.

For your protagonist, either use the Hifumi Magatama to Void Force for Matador's spells or Kamudo to Resist Physical for his Andalucia.
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